


On Heliophilia

by hippolarium



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Can be read as a, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Oneshot, Purely self indulgent fluff, i guess this could count as an au??, or a post-war au, or an au where the war never happened, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 03:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13628067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hippolarium/pseuds/hippolarium
Summary: Will Solace never thought he'd love anything more than the sun. He loved its presence; basking in its light, savouring its warmth. It filled him to the brim with life. It was the centre of his universe, and he adored it. So one day, he decides to tell it just how much he loves it.I wrote this on a whim because I needed some Solangelo fluff in my life.





	On Heliophilia

_Heliophilia - a love of the sun._

 

 

 

Will Solace had always loved the sun. He loved most especially the way it rose in the morning, its graceful dance marking beginning the day. He loved its presence, its power to transform a sky of black into a canvass of screaming colour. He loved its tendrils of light, the very reason he got up in the morning was if only to catch glimpses of its early form; serene and peaceful. He loved its warmth, the feeling of pure delight in his heart, the sensation of simply being _home_. But most of all, he loved it because it gave him life. The sun was the centre of his universe, and he adored it.

 

***

 

Nico had his back to him, but he could see his expression in the reflection of the window as he made breakfast. His eyebrows were adorably scrunched in concentration as he attempted to flip a pancake. When he managed to land it, his eyes, normally inscrutable, lit up. That simple change in his eyes brightened his entire expression, and a soft smile graced his lips. Will was rendered completely helpless.

 

He caught Will’s eye in the reflection within the window and his eyes brightened significantly. “Your hair looks horrible,” he greeted, with a smile meant only for Will. _Gods, he was beautiful,_ Will thought.

 

Unable to keep himself from Nico any longer, Will left his spot on the doorframe and approached him. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and kissed his cheek. “Yeah, good morning to you too, Death Boy.”

 

Nico glanced at him properly and leant into him a little. When they first started dating, Nico had been very insistent against PDA, and especially against physical contact. He didn’t even let Will so much as hold his hand unless they were alone, and every time he did, his face would turn scarlet. Will imagined Cupid shooting an arrow right through his heart every time he managed to make him flustered. He would pointedly look away in a very poor attempt to hide the small smile on his lips, and stutter his words until he calmed down. It was adorable. Nowadays, Nico had gotten comfortable with Will’s touchiness, and wasn’t as easily flustered as he used to be. Which made the moments Will did manage to catch him off guard all the more precious.

 

“So what’s the occasion?” Will asked, resting his chin on Nico’s shoulder. “As much as I’d like to believe that my wonderful boyfriend would willingly get up before the ungodly hour I wake up at and make breakfast-“

 

“Which is perfectly plausible,” Nico interjected.

 

“Of course,” Will said teasingly, planting a light kiss on his jaw. “But what’s up? Is everything alright?”

 

Nico tensed for a millisecond and poured some more pancake batter into the pan. “I just thought it would be nice, seeing how stressed you’ve been these past couple of days,” he said dismissively.

 

Will, although he detected the half-truth, couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “That is really nice,” he agreed. He decided not to push the subject. He trusted that Nico would tell him in his own time, or that he had a good reason for holding back.

 

He let go of Nico and started clearing up Nico’s little dining table. It was filled with all of Will’s notes and textbooks in preparation for his final exams at university. Nico had let him crash for the past two weeks, given that he lived much closer to the train station than Will did and Will was swamped with exams. Will was studying to be a doctor, specifically one that specialised in physiotherapy for people involved in spinal injuries. It was one thing to save someone’s life. It was an entirely different thing to help them reclaim their lives with a disability.

 

Nico came around a lot sooner than Will thought. “Actually, there is something else,” he said.

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah. There’s... there’s something I wanna tell you.”

 

Nico was determinedly focused on making his pancakes. His eyes went back to being guarded and cold. Will felt a cold spike of anxiety in his chest.

 

They had only been dating for three months, but they had known each other as acquaintances for a bit longer. Well, maybe to Nico he was simply an acquaintance, but Will had been captivated by him from the moment he first laid eyes on him. First it had been fleeting glimpses at a summer camp they both went to as teenagers. He couldn’t work up the courage then to talk to him. Then it had been seeing him on the train he took to go to university. Will didn’t have the nerve to start up a conversation either, unwilling to disturb the peace of a morning train ride. Finally, fate was on his side when he stumbled across Nico in a coffee shop, reading quietly to himself.

 

It had been a roller coaster of events until they finally sorted themselves out and started dating. There was a lot of insecurity and running away on Nico’s part, and a lot of mixed signals and overreacting on Will’s part. Nevertheless, Will trusted that the sun would return soon enough. And the three months he had been with Nico were nothing but bliss.

 

Now he was afraid again. Did Nico decide that Will wasn’t worth it, after all? Did he suddenly realise that he wasn’t as crazy about him as Will was for him? Was he getting sick of him?

 

“Relax, I can feel your anxiety from here. I’m not breaking up with you,” Nico said.

 

Will let out a chuckle of relief and sat down. “I wasn’t thinking that at all,” he said.

 

Nico turned the stove off and brought a plate of fresh pancakes to the table. He sat down in the seat across Will. “Hey,” he said softly, his feet reaching out under the table to touch Will’s. “If I wanted to break up with you, you’d know straight away. Trust me.”

 

Will couldn’t help but laugh and agree. He knew first hand what that looked that looked like from Nico. It’d hurt at the time, but he was glad it was just a remnant of the past now that could be laughed at.

 

“These past few months have been the happiest I’ve ever been. I reconnected with my sister, my dad’s talking to me again, I got an actual job. But I also like to think that you,” he murmured, reaching out for his hand across the table. “You’re a big part of that reason too.”

 

Will wanted to scream to the world how much he _adored_ Nico di Angelo.

 

“That was so fucking gay,” Nico said, letting go of his hand and getting up.

 

“Let me help you,” Will said, rising out of his seat, but Nico shot him a look.

 

“Nope, I’m doing everything today. You just sit down and actually relax for once.”

 

“But-“

 

“Just shut the fuck up already, Solace.”

 

Will conceded and watched Nico move about the kitchen. If he didn’t know that his boyfriend was tense before, he definitely did now. His language got worse when he was nervous.

 

When Nico returned he had two plates and some cutlery, a bottle of maple syrup and...

 

“Is that Nutella?” Will asked, incredulous.

 

“Yes, Will. As clearly shown by the label-“

 

“You hate Nutella! You said the day you’d ‘actually have that crap excuse for a chocolate spread in your kitchen’ was the day you’d kill Mrs O’Leary!”

 

Nico gave him a dry smile. “Well-“

 

Will reached for a tea towel on the back of a seat and hit Nico’s shoulder with it. “Nico!”

 

Nico laughed and held his hands up in surrender as he took a seat. “Kidding, kidding, no deaths. I thought today would be an exception. Now even though I’ll never understand why you put that gods awful stuff on your food, I know you miss it.”

 

Nico continued to complain about Will’s food choices and the journey he undertook to find a jar, but Will was frozen in time. There was not a day he woke up not thinking about Nico. There was not a day his face didn’t light up when he received a message from his boyfriend, even if they had been dating for a while now. There was not a day when he didn’t look forward to seeing him at the end of every week, or more recently, at the end of a long day.

 

But only today, in this very moment, did he realise how much he loved him.

 

“Will, are you listening?” Nico said, immediately snapping him out of his reverie.

 

“Sorry, go on, I’m listening now.”

 

Nico rolled his eyes fondly at him and sighed. “I was about to tell you the thing I wanted to tell you this morning.”

 

Will smiled at him and heaped some Nutella onto his pancake. “Shoot,” he said.

 

Nico sighed again, though this time it seemed more like he was working up his nerve. “Alright so, you know how you’ve been staying over at my place for the past two weeks? Well, it got me thinking about stuff. I’ve been living alone ever since Bianca died and I liked it. I liked being on my own, having control over my own living space, no one to clean up after, sleeping in the middle of the bed, you know the deal. And of course when I saw you getting stressed over the study time you lost for travel I didn’t hesitate to offer because I care about you, and I don’t regret that decision. But I wasn’t sure how I’d actually feel about having someone else living under the same roof as me...”

 

Will watched him intently as he spoke, his new revelation swirling around in his chest and growing stronger with every word. He wondered how he hadn’t realised sooner. He loved his little ponytail at the base of his head when he was cooking. He loved the way he spoke with his hands, his beautiful hands, when he was passionate about something. He loved the little brown freckles across nose, freckles he didn’t even notice until he was close enough to kiss him. He loved his little habits, the way he’d unconsciously latch onto Will in the early morning when he rose, his soft humming as he washed the dishes, the way his eyebrows scrunched up when he was concentrating. He loved his quiet attentiveness, the way he listened carefully when Will needed to vent, his memory of the small details, his arms around his shoulders when Will got too stressed.

 

_I’m going to marry this boy someday_ , he thought.

 

“I wasn’t exactly sure where to draw the boundaries, especially with the bed, as you know, which is kind of dumb since we’ve been dating for three months-“

 

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I really gotta tell you something quickly,” Will said.

 

Nico paused. “Okay.”

 

Will smiled and reached over the table to hold his hand. He had never been surer of anything else in his entire life. He felt like he would simply explode if he didn’t tell Nico at this very moment.

 

“I love you, Nico di Angelo.”

 

There was silence.

 

Will immediately regretted being so impulsive. He had gotten too caught up in his revelations and his feelings that he completely overlooked how Nico would feel. Especially in the middle of Nico telling him something important. Will wanted to kick himself. _Gods, you are so stupid._

 

“Oh my gods, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that,” Will blurted, letting go of Nico. “There’s no pressure to say it back or anything-“

 

“Well fuck, Will,” Nico said, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I was trying to ask you if you wanted to move in with me. I even tried to make it all romantic and shit. How am I supposed to top a confession like that?”

 

Will buried his face in his hands. _I should’ve just waited until the end,_ he thought miserably. “I’m sorry,” Will mumbled. “I ruined your moment-“

 

“Hey, look at me,” Nico said, gently prying one of his hands from his face. When he saw Will, he smiled softly. “I swear, could you be any less attractive when you’re embarrassed?” he said, more to himself.

 

Will moaned and tried to hide again, but Nico was firm. “Look at me, Will.” Will couldn’t help but comply. “Let’s try to sort our way out of this before it becomes a bigger clusterfuck. Do you want to move in with me? And please give it a moment of thought.”

 

Will paused and thought about it like he asked. There really wasn’t much to it. He had already decided that he wanted to marry Nico and spend the rest of his life with him. That confession, however, would have to come much later. “Yeah, I do,” he told him truthfully.

 

“Alright, so we’ve got that sorted. Now onto the second thing...”

 

Nico let go of his hand and pointedly looked away from Will. He turned his attention back towards his food and ate. For a moment, Will thought he wanted to forget Will’s confession and never talk about it again until he noticed that Nico was blushing. A rare moment when he managed to catch him off guard. And he needed to exploit it before it faded.

 

“The second thing?” Will said, feigning ignorance. “You mean the fact that I love you?”

 

“T-that’s the one.”

 

Will smirked. “You’re stuttering, my love.”

 

“Finish your damn breakfast, Solace.”

 

“Oh, I will. I intend to savour every bite. Because it was made by the love of my life.”

 

“For fuck’s sake,” Nico muttered to himself.

 

Will laughed and decided to stop there. Nico looked about ready to explode at any moment.

 

They finished breakfast peacefully, the regular banter between them returning quickly. Nico was sweet enough to do the dishes as well, though not without objection from Will. He had resorted to threatening to kick Will out before he even moved in so he could wash the dishes in peace. By the time Will was ready to go, Nico was dressed for work. He had to leave before Nico was ready in order to catch his train, but not before reminding his boyfriend that he loved him, just for good measure.

 

Will thought he could get used to this. Waking up next to Nico’s peaceful form as the sun’s first rays trickled into the room. Fighting over who would clean up after eating. Their regular banter as they got ready together, mixed with sweet declarations of love just to see Nico blush. Kissing him goodbye before he left for university. Burying his face in his neck when he got home. Falling asleep next to him and feeling so full of happiness.

 

The following week after Will had finished his exams, he started moving in. Soon enough, Will brought Nico to his hometown in Texas to meet his mother, while Nico brought Will to California to meet his half-sister and her boyfriend. It eventually became a habit for Will to tell Nico he loved him often, to the point that Nico would no longer grow flustered. It seemed so natural to them to be together, for Will to love Nico wholeheartedly, to dream about a future for them. Will had grown so used to it that he didn’t even realise that Nico hadn’t said it back.

 

Until the day he finally did.

 

***

 

There was no accounting for the simple pleasure of being with Nico. His was the last face Will saw before going to sleep, and the first he saw in the morning. He loved his smile greeting him at the end of the day, and it’s power to immediately melt away all his worries. He loved the sight of him in the morning, the barest sunlight over his face, the pure bliss on his features as he slept. He loved the way he made him feel, the soft fluttering in his chest when he looked at him, the cosiness and safety of his arms. Will Solace never thought he’d love anything more than the sun.

 

Nico di Angelo was the sun, and there was nothing in the universe he adored more.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Helloo my dudes, so I'm still pretty new to this fanfic thing, so I'd appreciate any comments or some (gentle) constructive criticism :)) Also, I had another section planned where I'd detail the first time Nico said 'I love you' back to Will, but I left it out because I wanna focus on Will this time around. If anyone was interested however, I could probably write another oneshot about it with a focus on Nico?? Anyways if you made it this far, thank you for reading :)))


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